The Foundation of a Great Edifice

No one looks at the vast edifice crossing San Francisco Bay and says ….”OMG can you imagine how complex the work of building those foundation blocks in the water must have been.”

What catches your eye as you look at the Golden Gate Bridge is not the foundational pieces that actually make the whole thing possible. It’s the structure built on top of the foundation that everyone pays attention to.

The Golden Gate Bridge was not a sudden epiphany. People had been talking about a bridge from Oakland to San Francisco for 40 years before the Golden Gate project. The issue was no one could figure out how to start. The land on both sides was unforgiving and the water between was deep, treacherous and deadly. The current was so strong ships could not anchor long enough to drill into the bedrock on the bay floor.

Once that foundational infrastructure was established, any bridge was possible. Without it, nothing was going to work. Until then, people would slowly ferry back and forth unable to make the meaningful progress everyone wanted and needed.

Elementary school is the infrastructure of the 21st century, we may not be noticed, but all the impressive things seen in the people around you would not be possible without us doing what seems impossible

P.S

The solution to the bridge problem came from the Navy. They sent subs down to drop torpedoes into the bedrock to start the casting holes.